Global warming

Although he has moved to protect his golf course from rising sea levels, President-elect Donald Trump has sung a denialist tune about global warming. Opting out of domestic and international climate change mitigation efforts look to be next.

Sea-level rise, tidal flooding, and frequent storms associated with climate change will impact top US military installations along the East and Gulf Coast, according to a new report, putting them at risk for major land loss in the decades ahead.

Glaciers are still melting, but climate change is having an unexpected effect on sea levels, NASA has found. Satellites show 3.2 trillion tons of water has been stored on land over the past decade, slowing the pace of rising sea levels by 20 percent.

The US Supreme Court split narrowly in favor of delaying the Clean Power Plan, but the White House expressed confidence that it would ultimately defend the Environmental Protection Agency regulation imposed on much of the fossil fuel industry in court.

Pope Francis began the first full day of his six-day, three city US tour with a welcoming ceremony at the White House with President Barack Obama. It is the pope’s first trip to the United States.

The Obama administration has released its final Clean Power Plan which regulates carbon emissions from US power plants. The plan calls for a 32 percent reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. However, some worry higher energy bills are in the works.

Wildfires in Alaska this summer that have burned almost 5 million acres total are now threatening to melt permafrost below the ground surface which contains carbon, a leading driver of global climate change.

Facebook announced it will use 100 percent wind energy to run its new data center in Texas. The social networking giant has committed to powering all its operations with 50 percent renewable energy in the next three years.

​So much methane leaks from oil and gas production on federal and tribal lands in the United States that any environmental benefits gained from natural gas use are cancelled out. It also costs US taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in royalties.